By
Heather AllenI confess I rarely make it outside of the city when
dining out so when friends invited me to join them in Mae
Rim at Steak of the Day for dinner one evening I did so with
some trepidation. It is true, the road to Mae Rim is
horrific. However, Steak of the Day is just off the main
road at the turn to the Four Seasons in a shopping mall so
it is possible to bypass the awfulness that is the area
around Canal Road and use the Samoeng road to avoid it if
you are coming from somewhere else. I took Canal, and
struggled through the construction for a while and I must
say, Steak of the Day made it all worthwhile.

The chef/owner used to work at the Four Seasons and it
shows. I, of course, had the steak. He has a few different
cuts and some sauces but the main focus for me, was, of
course the steak. I am rather fussy about how I like it
cooked. I do like it medium rare, not too rare but not too
cooked either. It is also difficult to find really quality
steak that is not outrageously expensive. I realize that
this is Thailand after all, and that top quality meat is
usually imported but there seems to be a mindset with some
steak places that since they are serving steak with it must
come the associated trappings of cost as well.
Steak of the Day is unpretentious. If you saw it from the
outside you wouldn’t think to yourself, this place has
fabulous food. But you would be doing yourself a disservice
if you didn’t stop in. And order a steak. I had the New
Zealand tenderloin. It was cooked to perfection, with a
fabulous peppercorn sauce and mashed potatoes. Ray, the
chef, also does a delicious lamb shank according to my
friend who had that. For dessert I had a delicious chocolate
mousse. We brought our own wine and I do not believe we were
charged corkage.
There are some pasta dishes and salads, desserts, fish and
chips, and a few others. The menu is not huge but each dish
is quality, there is the steak of the day on the board
(hence the name) so you may get something different when you
go. The restaurant is open air and quite casual, the owner
and his wife Nui friendly and the food delicious. The prices
quite reasonable (I think I paid around 500- 600 baht for my
steak dinner).
This is a great place for a casual dinner with a group of
friends. Apparently there are some decent vegetarian choices
on the menu but we were all meat eaters. The owners are
opening a breakfast place across the way which, given their
attention to detail with the food at Steak of the Day,
promises to be excellent as well. They are closed Sundays
and open for lunch and dinner, located in Mae Rim Plaza. 081
256 7292.

RECIPES BY NOI: Kaopan; family
fast food

In our last recipe we talked a tiny bit about Kaopan and we
know that it looks similar to Japanese rice balls or
Onigiri.
To me it’s like fast food because we can add anything in it
and it’s so transportable for the kids. Many times my
parents had friends come to visit during dinner (it’s really
normal to discuss business during dinner time in my
village), they might come from another village and bring
their children with them.
Having dinner and discussing business at the same time is
already quite exhausting so dealing with their children and
talking business would be too much to handle. Kaopan is the
hero in this case; what we need is just sticky rice and then
flatten it about 1cm thick about the size of the palm of
your hand. Then add whatever food we have at that time such
as meat from curry or soup, deep fried / grilled/ boiled
meat, boiled egg, sausages etc. Even fruits such as tamarind
and mango. sweet potato both grilled or steamed can be yummy
in Kaopan too. Oh! any kind of chili paste such as Nam Prik
Ta Dang, Nam Prik Noom, Nam Prik Nam Phu, Nam Prik Ong (we
have given recipes for all of these different kinds of Nam
Prik in previous recipes) Then wrap it into a spring roll
shape. With this shape the children can hold it in their
hand and eat while playing outside with their friends.
My favorite is Kaopan is with steamed wasp larvae, add a
little bit salt. Mmmm!
As we know we can make many different kind of Kaopan, maybe
you can create yours with any ingredient. That sounds fun,
doesn’t it?